Naturals: WORST mistakes you ever made as a natural?

[biancaantoinette]

Using heat with my egg treatment. It's no fun picking scrambled eggs out of your hair!

Eggs are great for hair...just don't heat 'em up.

OH YES! my mom thought she was doing something when she put me under the dryer with an egg and mayo DC. It matted my hair beyond repair... I had to cut it all off

 

[winona]

Not taking my time to get to know my hair. In the beginning I tried any and everything that was raved about. Instead I should have did an assessment of my hair and ask some very important questions like: How does it feel? What have you used to make it feel this way? What are you going to do about it? I would have realized sooner that my hair need moisture and less manipulation. CoWashing everyday for me dry it out.

 

[DivineNapps1728]

My BIGGEST mistake was henna'ing too frequently; initially I thought the loosened texture was cool, but combine relaxed texture (from heavy henna treatments) with heat styling, growth && normal wear & tear... &&& you get every hair type imaginable on one head.

Dry combing, rough detangling, too frequent trims & too tight braids were other mistakes made.

 

[ylinspired]

Putting highlights multiple times on my freshly new natural hair. Was a total disaster. I'm still trying to recover, and have made great progress thank God!

 

[faithVA]

Not moisturizing my hair properly or sufficiently while in extensions. I ended up having to cut off every inch that grew with the extensions because my hair was so damaged. And putting color in my hair My hair pretends to be ok with it but its really not.

Without these two I would probably be BSL by now.

 

[Anaya-Amani]

Giving in to creamy crack!!!!


"...Forgetting what is behind and looking forward to what is ahead,..."
Philippians 3:13

 

[Lucie]

Great thread!

 

[beanie44]

I got my hair colored a lot, everything from red to blond,the blond was the most damaging, I didn't know about moisture/protein balance and my ends suffered, I did co-wash every other day so it was moisturized. Now I don't get such lite coloring all over only as hi-lights, I also get Aveda hair coloring and my hair is not as dry.

I stopped ripping the comb through my hair, now I pretty much finger comb and use a large tooth comb during conditioning only, I retaining a lot more hair.

When I cut off the curly perm, I thought with moisturing it would be enough, it was only when I decided to grow my hair as long as possible that I found this site and started using such tools as braiding my hair at night, covering my hair with a silk scarf not cotton badana, and silk pillow cases, then my hair really started retaining, before this I had an area in the back middle part of my head that was three inches shorter than the surrounding area, now that area has filled in.

 

[aribell]

I held the dumb idea that "nappy" hair is indestructible, that a tight curl pattern means you can be rough (and have to be rough) with your hair. In reality, my individual strands are rather fine and have to be treated with kid gloves otherwise they will break off in a quick second.

 

[CarefreeinChicago]

Getting a BKT I wish I had never heard of it

 

[fluffyforever]

Not using a detangling brush to get the shed hair out. I think 90% of my knots are caused by shed hair.

Not applying creamy leave-ins and oils on wet hair to keep it moisturized.

Letting my hair shrink to the best of its ability. Having hair longer than APL shrinking to twa is calling for trouble.

 

[Studio_gal]

My worst mistake was following everyone, like a sheep, to use a popular sulfur based oil mix 'fast growing' concoction. Lets just say, sulfur got into my hair, dried it out and made it break off very badly. My hair is a slow grower and it took my hair a long time to recover.

 

[Anaya-Amani]

Going back to the creamy crack!


"...Forgetting what is behind and looking forward to what is ahead,..."
Philippians 3:13

 

[ThirdEyeBeauty]

Not detangling my hair often enough

I DC almost daily and did not detangle hair for over a month. I lost a lot of length.

 

[BostonMaria]

Getting a BKT I wish I had never heard of it

kinchen I was contemplating the idea of BKT. The longer I wait, the more horror stories I hear. I'll deal with my shrinkage.


Sent from my fancy iPhone using LHCF

 

[MzSwift]

Letting my wet hair dry loose. Even though I was gentle, my poor scalp was so tender after that detangling session -- and I'm a finger-detangler! Neva again..

Now I will at least put it into four ponytails and bantu knot them.

 

[Blessed2883]

Getting frustrated during my awkward post TWA stage and relaxing. I hated it as applied it, dried and styled it. Needless to say I'm transitioning now. Oh well "you live and learn." I've learned a valuable lesson..

 

[Renewed1]

Not being patient with my hair and ripping my hair out in large chunks.

Tangle teezer and the denman brush. At first I love those things. But I realized when I straightened my hair that I had split hairs throughout my head. I'm finally recovering.

Buying anything with silicones and all the other no-no ingredients.

 

[constance]

twists (tangled ends).

 

[Embyra]

Flat ironing near-dry hair. Can you say shizzle my fizzle?

Love this thread!!

 

[BreeNique]

I don't think anything I've done is a mistake.

I'm very big on "pacing myself", so I always have somehting to look forward to, a new concoction to research/ thinkabout, a product to buy in the future.

Perhaps one of the biggest learning experiences has been me getting used to thinking objectively and critically about my hair, and reomoving the emotional baggage that comes with it.

Since college, I've taken responsibility for my hair, and all that it entails, trying to keep it in perspective. I actually delight in taking care of it now, and I'm excited for my wash days!!

BIGGEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE: combing out shed hairs BEFORE i wet/ wash my hair, so I know what's shed and what's broken, etc.

Loving it!

 

[bhndbrwneyes]

this is any interesting thread...bump

 

[HoneyA]

Pre-LHCF - first time I transitioned to natural

- Used grease only and no moisture = breakage and no retention

-Washed my hair with blue soap or dishwashing liquid and no conditioner. What was that? = hair like the desert when dried

-ripped through my hair after taking down braids because there were so many tangles and knots. Good grief! I was angry with my hair and it not doing what I wanted it to do - which was just to be detangled and easy to handle. Used to end up in tears from the frustration and with a sore scalp

-Braided it up constantly so I wouldn't have to deal with it = thinning edges and ends

-Eventually relaxed again because I had no clue what to do with it or how to handle it and it just annoyed me.

Post-LHCF and natural - I'm like what was the problem again ? All I needed was moisture ...

 

[DivineNapps1728]

1. Bandwagon hopping & being so determined to get results others did that I continued using products/tools/styling methods that didn't work (for my hair) in hopes that somehow they eventually would.

2. Trying to use up products that don't work in an attempt to not be wasteful.

3. Mixing products that don't work for me instead of passing them to someone who can use them as is.

4. Getting off of a regular trimming schedule

 

[natural2008]

Stopped using grease and just use oil for 3 months. My hair didn't like it. I had to take my grease back out of the cabinet and use it. A minor set back but I'll come back. My hair loves mineral oil and petroleum :0).

 

[omnipadme]

BKT- i had so much breakage months after, I almost cried. My texture was never the same.

 

[keranikki]

1. Letting someone convince me to get a relaxer after my first BC in 2002.
2. Relaxing my hair after transitioning for a year, because I was frustrated.
3. Not researching the salon first before getting a sew-in weave. My braids came loose, while the weave was still in, causing a detangleing nightmare. I had to chop off my hair
4. Not getting my ends trimmed. Learning about dusting has helped me tremendously!

My current mistake is not truly knowing my hair. I have 3c hair in the back, 3a/b hair in the front, and 4a hair at the crown (I think). I'm still researching.

 

[MissCrawford]

Henna on extremely dry and visibly damaged hair. I big chopped for the second and hopefully last time afterwards. It was so worth it to start over though.

 

[Atdow71]

Not twisting my hair when leaving in dc overnight. Surprisingly leads to tangles and knots galore in the morning.

 

[toyas08]

Letting my hair shrink up to where it almost matted causing lots of single strand knots

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF